For example, in PTL 1, a technique for detecting a smiling face in an image of image data is disclosed, and an example in which the detection of a smiling face is applied to an imaging apparatus, such as a digital still camera, is also disclosed.
That is, by using a digital still camera, the following series of still-image capturing operation is performed. In a captured image obtained by capturing an image of a subject, a smiling face of the subject is detected. If a smiling face is detected, a shutter is released, and a frame image which has been input at the very moment when the shutter has been released is extracted as a still image, and data representing that still image is stored in a memory. Accordingly, the digital still camera automatically performs a still-image capturing operation without an instruction from a user so that it can capture an image of a smiling face of the subject.